Animal Olympics Cruelty?

The Cantonese have a reputation for eating anything that moves. Even other
Chinese joke about them: "they will eat anything with four legs except
chairs and tables." I was in a market in Guanzhou some years ago, and I
can attest to their affinity for everything from bats, kittens, badgers, to
snakes - and even some creatures that I couldn't identify.

The Chinese are also known for pushing some species into near-extinction in
order to provide ingredients for many remedies of dubious efficacy. The black
rhino is nearly gone due to the use of its horn in medicinal compounds. The
trade is illegal in international, U.S. and Chinese law, and yet
it continues. There is a similar illegal trade for tigers
and bears, particularly for bear
gall bladders.

Now take a look at this, from the Chinese 'Animal Olympics' held in Shanghai.
This article, in a bit of hyperventilated
editorializing, calls it 'sickening' in its title. I don't know if it was
actually 'sickening', I wasn't there, and it may only have been sickening in
the mind of the journalist. In fact, the journalist does not seem to have actually
been there either, and the article reads like something written by an animal
rights shill. I was surprised though, I thought that 'kangaroo boxing' was a
fiction that only existed in cartoons - I didn't know such events actually took
place.

I don't object to eating kittens or bats - I wouldn't question your morality
on that, but I would question your palate. Nor do I object to making animals
do tricks. We all do things we really don't want to - and why shouldn't animals
perform to earn a meal they might have to fight to the death for in the wild?

I draw a line, however, when the treatment leads to gratuitous suffering or
death. Destroying nearly-extinct species in order to make medicinal remedies
that don't even work seems to be a completely useless waste. Making animals
do tricks that grievously harm them for no other purpose than to entertain the
easily amused likewise seems gratuitous.

I make an exception for bull fighting. While completely gratuitous, it gives
the bull a chance to die with a little dignity and honor while fighting - something
they take to quite naturally. It isn't a fair fight - but no one ever claimed
it was. The bull does have a chance at inflicting some mayhem however, and if
I were sitting in the audience I would probably hope he would. I am one of those
guys who only watches car racing for the crashes, by the way.

Posted by Ken McCracken · 28 September 2006 02:10 PM

Comments

Just the idea of a bear gall bladder would work on me like syrup of epicac. Eeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuwah!

"The Chinese are also known for pushing some species into near-extinction in order to provide ingredients for many remedies of dubious efficacy."

dUBOIUS TO you, GWAI-LOH DEVIL!

Posted by: Chou Enlai at September 28, 2006 03:03 PM

LOL

Chou, I thought you were dead!

Did those bear gall bladders revive you or something?

Posted by: Ken McCracken at September 28, 2006 03:31 PM

It makes one wonder, HOW Anyone would have come up with the idea to even try out a bear gall bladder???Today is Joust The Facts second birthday! I wonder if the good doctor has ever experimented with bear gall bladders? ...

Chou? Are you a democrat? Just wondering because of the up coming elections? I have decided more dead Republicans should start coming back to Vote. When I die, that is one of the first things I plan to check out...I don't think Dems should be exclusive for that privilage.

Go see a bullfigth. Absolutely no chance is given to the bull.
It is disgusting massacre.
anne

Posted by: ann Æ at September 29, 2006 09:34 AM

This is Disgraceful. Someone should give the chinese a lesson in the Basics of morals, Animal Rights and Life. They dont seem to get teh fact that this sort of activity is wrong and not fair on the animals. This makes me enraged.

Posted by: Ben at September 29, 2006 11:05 PM

This is horrible. I cannot believe this country is going to be the next host of the olympics. Surely there are better countries out there that dont abuse their animals that would make a better host. If anyone knows of someone that i can email to complain about this formally can you please email me. This needs to be stopped.

Posted by: Kelly at September 30, 2006 03:34 AM

All my life i have heard things like this,
chinese eating dogs and cats, rich zoo's that are more like prisons beacuse if the animals wont be still for photos they will be killed, but overal this is the most cruel thing i have ever heard, a kangeroo boxing a human i couldnt belive hearing that. Im an australian and i see kangeros jump by behind my house, but if they were extinct, well that would be horrinble.

To hell with you Ken McCraken, how dare you say that these animals should perform to earn a meal. People like you disgust me. These animals are tortured & forced to do unnatural, demeening tricks for human entertainment & profit. The cruelty involved is quite evident, how anyone cannot find this sickening is beyond me. These animals should be in their natural habbitat, not riding a bike across a tightrope. Keep your opinions to yourself you jackass.

Posted by: Tess at October 8, 2006 02:02 AM

thanks to all of you who are as compasionate as I am towards animal cruelty. It is refreshing to know there are people with the same beliefs as myself. These animal olympics must be stopped. I suggest writing letters to world leaders & to other high profile people who will be able to knock some sense into the chinese.